In the face of popular outcry, Moscow is backing the military leadership and blaming its dead soldiers, attributing the incident to the illegal use of cellphones.
The death of dozens of Russian soldiers inside their barracks in the city of Makiivka, in the eastern Ukrainian province of Donetsk, which is controlled by Russian forces, has caused shock even to Russia’s military correspondents and severe criticism of Putin and the country’s military leadership.
Ukrainian missiles hit the building 3 days ago and leveled it (center photo) killing 89 people – according to the latest tally from the Russian Ministry of Defense. Kyiv spoke of 400 dead.
Moscow announced on Wednesday that 89 Russian troops are now known to have been killed in a Ukrainian missile strike on the Donetsk region city of Makiivka shortly after the New Year began.https://t.co/uPOOYWPALP
— The Moscow Times (@MoscowTimes) January 4, 2023
Russian war correspondents and military bloggers, many with hundreds of thousands of blog followers, said the massive destruction was the result of ammunition being stored in the same building as a barracks, despite commanders knowing it was within range of Ukrainian missiles.
“What happened in Makiyivka is horrible,” Archangel Spetznaz Z, another Russian military blogger with more than 700,000 followers on Telegram, pointedly wrote.
“Who thought of putting so many personnel in a building, where even a fool understands that even if they hit with artillery, there will be many wounded or dead?” He wrote. Commanders “didn’t care at all” about ammunition stored in disarray on the battlefield, he said.
“It’s the soldiers’ fault for using their cellphones,” says Moscow
In the face of popular outcry, Moscow is backing the military leadership and blaming its dead soldiers, attributing the incident to the illegal use of cellphones.
“Activation and mass use by personnel of mobile phones within the range of enemy weapons, although this was prohibited, allowed the enemy to track and determine the coordinates of the location where the soldiers were for the missile strike,” announced General Sergei Sevryukov .
Makiivka: Russia blames missile attack on soldiers’ mobile phone use
“This factor allowed the enemy to locate and determine the coordinates of the location of military personnel for a missile strike” https://t.co/qfK94n8cEm
— Fabio Chiusi (@fabiochiusi) January 4, 2023
Russia’s acknowledgment of dozens of deaths in one incident is unprecedented. Moscow rarely releases figures on its losses, and when it does the numbers are usually small. For example, it acknowledged only one death among the hundreds of crew members when Ukraine sank the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, the cruiser Moskva, in April.
With information from APE – BBC – ERT
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